Segways and electric scooters are being banned from waterfront and Old City areas of Barcelona. Residents and even other tourists have complained that they are a nuisance and perhaps safety issue in crowded areas.
Barcelona, a city that’s been at the cutting edge of struggles over how much tourism is too much, has been finding ways to impose what it considers rational limits, including limits on tourist beds in some areas, while allowing more in less-developed areas.
Nonetheless, there have been jarring headlines in recent weeks as anarchist protesters have slashed tires and spraypainted graffiti on tour buses. There have also been peaceful demonstrations against overtourism in a city that sees as many as 30 million tourists a year.
This is one I have to concede to Barcelona’s heavy handed city government. The Segway tours are dangerous. People who don’t know how to drive Segways sign up and are taken into the narrow crowded streets often at rates of speed that are unsafe. Best to leave the old city to the pedestrians.